Distance Education at the Secondary Level in Qu

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Distance Education at the Secondary Level in
Québec

• Présentation à la réunion annuelle de la P/TDEA
• Ottawa, Ontario
• Pierre Giguère
• Robert Saucier
• 13 octobre 2005

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Content

• SOFAD description
• Brief history of DE at the secondary level
• SOFAD  a detailed description
• Major recent developments and issues
• Conclusion

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SOFAD description

• Adults
• Self-paced
• Materials
• In DE or in adult education centres
• Online and in print
• French and English

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Brief history of DE at the secondary level

• One administrative unit at the Ministry for 50
  years
• 1946
• Lack of materials for vocational education
• Lack of technical schools
• Correspondance school
• 1972
• General education
• Télé-Université
• 80s
• Popular education and cegep level courses
• Business minded organisation
• Registrations peaked

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Brief history of DE at the secondary level

• Early 90s
• DE institution created for the cegep level
• First courses offered in English
• Planned decline of DE at the secondary level
  takes place
• 1994
• Liaison committee is created CLIFAD
• with SOFAD, CCFD and Télé-université
• 1995-96
• End of the single unit for DE at the Ministry

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Brief history of DE at the secondary level

• A new system with two subsets
• 1995, all services to the students go to the
  school boards
• 1996, SOFAD
• a central body, outside the Ministry,
  administered by the school boards
• to develop, produce or coproduce learning
  materials for general education, either in DE or
  in adult education centres
• to promote DE 
• to carry out studies and research 
• to foster the use of new technologies 
• to encourage partnerships

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SOFADDetailed description

• For both French and English speaking communities
• For the adult population, 16 years and over
• More than 200 courses offered
• All academic courses Secondary 1 to 5 (French and
  English)
• Vocational courses in Secretarial Studies and
  Accounting (French)
• A few professional training and popular education
  courses (French)

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SOFADDetailed description

• Specialized in
• Technological and instructional design
• Project management
• Quality control
• 26 people
• Projects coordinators
• New technologies consultant
• Research Development advisor
• Institutional research Communication advisor
• Digital rights negotiator
• Technical support
• Web integrator
• Client services
• Support staff

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SOFADDetailed description

• Outsourcing for 2/3 of production costs
• Subject matter specialists
• Researchers
• Authors
• System analysts and programmers
• Illustrators, recording studios, actors
• Graphic designers
• Interface designers
• Content reviewers
• Llinguistic reviewers
• Proofreaders
• Technical reliability testers
• Webmasters

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Major Recent Developments and IssuesCourse
Registrations

• Continuous growth in DE
• 1995-1996
• 10 600 course registrations
• 2004-2005
• 28 000 course registrations
• Unequal growth of the registrations in DE over
  the territory

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Major Recent Developments and IssuesAn Agreement

• Agreement about DE and e-learning in Québec
  School boards signed in december 2003 by four
  parties
• The Ministry of Education
• La Fédération des commissions scolaires du Québec
• The Québec English School Boards Association
• SOFAD

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Major Recent Developments and IssuesAn Agreement

• SOFADs mandate confirmed and expanded
• SOFAD identified as the privileged partner
• Changes considered about the organisation of DE
• Consortia
• Harmonization
• Out of Québec students
• Financing
• Youth sector

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Major Recent Developments and IssuesAn Agreement

• SOFADs mandate
• Learning materials
• Promotion
• Research
• Teachers continuing education
• Online preparation to the GED

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Major Recent Developments and IssuesOnline
Learning

• Some operational principles
• All credit courses developed online and in print
• Online and printed versions available at about
  the same price for the student
• Courses designed for DE as well as in-class
  students
• Courses also available to independant students

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Major Recent Developments and Issues Online
Learning

• Courses are
• complete elearning environments providing
• all learners need to learn
• all teachers/tutors need to support learning in
  an integrated fashion
• self paced and, when appropriate, collaborative
  learning
• within present school boards/SOFAD structure

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Major Recent Developments and Issues Online
Learning
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Major Recent Developments and Issues Online
Learning

• eduSOFAD.com
• 3 sections
• Students
• Teachers
• Administrators

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Major Recent Developments and Issues Online
Learning

• Now online 5 courses and 5 services
• Test de classement en mathématiques
• Test de classement en anglais langue seconde
• Biologie de la reproduction et périnatalité
• Réunions daffaires
• Communication bilingue
• Industrialisation et urbanisation
• Démocratie et culture
• Initiation aux ressources informatiques
• Éveil à la lecture et à lécriture
• Du français sans fautes

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Major Recent Developments and Issues Online
Learning

• By the end of 2005 8 more courses or services
• Test de classement en français langue
  denseignement
• Biologie du système respiratoire
• Géométrie III
• Trigonométrie I
• Méthode de doigté
• Recherche dinformation
• À la recherche dun emploi
• Bilan et choix professionnel

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Major Recent Developments and Issues Online
Learning

• By the end of 2005 English portal, 4 courses or
  services
• Placement test in Mathematics
• Geometry III
• Trigonometry I
• The Human Reproductive System and Perinatal

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Major Recent Developments and IssuesCustomized
Services

• New sector 5 people
• One big project with the Environment Ministry
  which makes SOFAD
• producer of distance courses and
• organization responsible for training more than
  25 000 workers using or selling pesticides in
  Québec
• Main recent issue make this new sector a
  profitable initiative
• Main recent challenge wished for a contract to
  produce and deliver some online customized
  services

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Major Recent Developments and IssuesVarious
projects up and coming

• The need for new materials because of the reform
  of the curriculum
• DE for the youth sector
• SOFADs opinion
• A go-ahead from the board of directors to
  distribute the document and to actually do some
  things
• A research project about student support in DE
• E-portfolio for life-long learning (an
  international conference in Quebec City in the
  spring of 2006)

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Conclusion

• Ten years old in a few months
• Still looking for a coming-of-age experience

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Contact

• Pierre Giguère
• [phone]
• pierreg_at_sofad.qc.ca
• Robert Saucier
• [phone]
• saucierr_at_sofad.qc.ca
• www.sofad.qc.ca www.edusofad.com